tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193Sat, 10 Jan 2015 00:18:12 +0000Game DesignCataclysmRoleplayingVirtual WorldsLoreRaidingRantRealityHumourFailCultureWarcraftBetaRealIDSpeculationStalkMeTwenty DaysBalanceIntroductionPrivacyControversialRiftScreenshotSpoilerEqualityGrindingPure ShoresSkillStatisticsStrong VoodoomageBloggingDramaGearGold buyingHunterIronmanLeakReal moneyRusty manShamanVirtual ItemsiPadAOECoolDruidERPFootballGuildPUGPVEPVPPatchSWTORShowing offSingle Abstract NounTrollingWarlockWelcomeWhiney post daysocialsteamworkFail PUG!A discussion of MMORPGS and what makes them fun.http://failpug.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Sven)Blogger113125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-5904895538500881748Sat, 03 Dec 2011 05:00:00 +00002011-12-03T18:15:57.560+00:00BalanceGame DesignWarcraftThe death of the hybridOne of the things I miss most about pre-Cata WOW was the freedom to experiment with different builds, to come up with the one that suited me best.&nbsp;The re-vamped talent trees of Cataclysm mean that you are effectively locked into one tree for a long time and can only ever access the lower levels of the other trees. Blizzard's stated reasoning for this was that:<br /><ul><li>many of the old talents were "must haves" for serious raiders, so they may as well be rolled up into the underlying spells;</li><li>by focussing people into a single tree early, it made it easier for new players to make a decision;</li><li>keeping players largely in one tree made it possible to give players signature abilities early on.</li></ul>If anything, things will become even more extreme in Mists of Pandaria, where talent trees are eliminated altogether and each class is effectively reduced to three sub-classes, plus a few minor "froth" options, with no substantial decisions to be made beyond that.<br /><br />The problem is, I liked doing the "wrong" thing. I had great fun mixing damage and healing with my restomental shaman in BC. My build wasn't optimised for a single task, as it would be for raiding, but designed to fit in well, depending on who else was available. In the days before dual-spec and dungeon-finder, being able to fill multiple slots with a single spec was both useful and fun.<br /><br />I wasn't alone; there were elementalist mages, shockadins, restokin ... flexible, but sub-optimal specs were everywhere. My panzerkin druid main-healed, tanked and DPSed most of the instances up to Nexus. I wouldn't have lasted thirty seconds as a raid tank, but that wasn't the objective.<br /><br />It's that right to be "wrong" that I miss, to ignore the cookie-cutter builds and go make something of my own. I don't want all my decisions made for me, I want the freedom to experiment and try out fun things. They mostly won't work, but that's fine; experimenting is fun in its own right.<br /><br />http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/12/death-of-hybrid.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-2564243699190654731Sun, 27 Nov 2011 09:43:00 +00002011-11-27T15:07:05.575+00:00EqualityHumourRantSWTORVirtual WorldsThat's not a chest, it's a ....<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tl2qOXbh-y8/TtIi6Sd828I/AAAAAAAAATQ/_YEbcgf8ZzQ/s1600/sith+pride.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="328" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tl2qOXbh-y8/TtIi6Sd828I/AAAAAAAAATQ/_YEbcgf8ZzQ/s640/sith+pride.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our hero models some "leg armour" that's more "Sith Pride disco" than "Dark Overlord."</td></tr></tbody></table>Another day, another "AAA" MMO arrives with half the player-characters sporting ludicrously oversized chests and being given "armour" that amounts to little more than a pair of Lycra hot pants. The twist is that this time it's men who are getting this treatment in SWTOR.<br /><br />There are, essentially, four different male human body forms available: <br /><br />1. So incredibly weedy looking that he looks like he'd suffer serious injury in a dandelion fight with Mr Muscle (that's the old-fashioned wimpy version of Mr M, by the way, not the new, errr, muscly version, which is silly. Nobody expects Mr Tickle to go around tickling people or Mr Angry to go around being cross with everyone ... they do? ... anyway, that's beside the point ... which is that it's a very wimpy look). Not fey-elf wimpy, just spindly-feeble wimpy. <br /><br />2/3. Almost identical (except for size) barrel-chested monstrosities that make the steroid-abusing human males of WOW look like they really do need to work on their pecs some more. And by barrel-chested, I really do mean barrel-chested; imagine the male equivalent of Jordan, but where the silicone has been replaced by the body of an R2 unit. At least it answers the perennial MMO question of where player characters store the 37 weapons, 13 sets of armour, 9 mounts and 3214 portions of Betelgeusian string-cheese they carry around all the time. These guys have a hollow chest cavity big enough to hide a <strike>fully functioning battlestation</strike>&nbsp;totally-non-suspicious-don't-mind-me moon inside it. <br /><br />4. A look that might charitably be described as "Captain of Industry". You know the cartoon pictures of fat-cat bankers the papers have been fond of over the last few years? Now go half-way between that and Jabba the Hutt. Then a little bit further back, but still quite flobbly ... a bit more ... that's it. Seeing an army of these guys wheezing across the battlefield is enough to strike fear into the dark heart of Darth EvilMcBastard, but only because he bears an unfortunate resemblance to a doughnut. The rest of the Sith will just shake their heads in bafflement as they slaughter them. No wonder the Republic is losing if they've let recruiting standards fall this low. <br /><br />What you won't notice in that list is&nbsp;anything&nbsp;remotely resembling a normal male body shape. Whilst I'm totally in favour of having body shape diversity in the game, none of the available male character models look anything like Lando, Han, Luke or Obi-Wan, which is a bit odd in a Star Wars themed game.<br /><br />Of course female players have had to put up with <a href="http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/05/looking-good.html">this sort of rubbish</a> for a long time, but I'm not sure the right solution is to make male characters look stupid too. How about a wide range of options (including fairly ordinary) for everyone?http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/11/swotr-chests.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-4936733025260031073Thu, 01 Sep 2011 18:33:00 +00002011-11-27T12:45:01.647+00:00BalanceCataclysmGame DesignHumourRaidingRantWarcraftThe one true skill<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.deviantart.com/download/148130950/EXTREME_CHESS_by_magefeathers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="341" src="http://www.deviantart.com/download/148130950/EXTREME_CHESS_by_magefeathers.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image credit: Magefeathers on Deviant Art</td></tr></tbody></table>Many of you out in MMO-land won't have heard of this, but WOW isn't the only game that's been undergoing something of a Cataclysm recently. The chess world has been in uproar over the changes made to that game to update it for the modern era. In case you haven't caught them, here are the key points of FIDE's announcement:<br /><ol><li>There is a big problem in the chess world with people copying tactics (and in some cases entire openings) from commercially-sold guides (often written by famous players who are cashing in on their status) rather than working things out for themselves.</li><li>These so-called "chess books" have become so widespread, that they've become an accepted part of the game. Even top players shamelessly copy openings devised by others, such as Alekhine or Ruy Lopez.</li><li>Even worse, many players now take advantage of breaks in play to analyse their games using chess bots. Some of these are so powerful that they have beaten world champions.</li><li>To counteract these problems and <i>"bring back the skill"</i>, FIDE have decided to make radical changes to the game.&nbsp;The out-moded concepts of preparation and learning have been replaced by the one true form of skill: reaction speed. All chess clocks will be replaced by a device with a light on it, which will illuminate at random intervals of less than ten seconds. When the light comes on to indicate the player's turn, he or she will be required to move within 0.5 seconds or forfeit the game.</li><li>Balance problems (where some pieces are clearly more powerful than others) have been resolved by making all pieces and pawns move in the same way - to any unoccupied adjacent square. A FIDE spokesman explained that the loss of <i>"piece identity" </i>&nbsp;is the only way to ensure true balance. The cosmetic appearance of the pieces will be retained.</li></ol><a name='more'></a>Of course, all of the above is a pack of lies and would pretty obviously ruin chess as a game. The whole point of chess is to be slow-moving and thoughtful, where background reading and preparation pay and twitch skills are irrelevant.<br /><br />Yet when similar changes happen with WOW, few people object. &nbsp;What was once a fairly slow-moving, thoughtful game, where a lot of the skill lay in optimising your character for encounters, has been homogenised and reduced to a giant twitch-fest because (horror) some people were reading boss-strategies and optimised specs online.<br /><br />For example, rotations have been <i>"improved"</i> by making them <i>"more reactive"</i>&nbsp;to stop people practicing and perfecting a fixed rotation. Learning to play has been replaced by <i>"how quickly can you press the button when the light comes on?"</i><br /><br />Now it's the tanks' turn. Building threat (a generally slow process that can be planned in advance) is out, reactive mitigation is in. Unfortunately, that's another, more extreme, Pavlovian twitch challenge: <i>"light on, press button quickly or die"</i>.<br /><br />One of the reasons I started playing WOW was the emphasis on thought and planning rather than twitch. Perhaps it’s this creeping “Simonification” of the game that’s losing customers. It’s not making it easier or harder, per se, just differently hard. Whereas before the thoughtful, slow people won, now it’s the fast but dumb.<br /><br />There's nothing fundamentally wrong with twitch games; what is a problem is changing the target demographic of your game long after it was established. It's not so much that people are leaving WOW, it's that WOW is leaving them.http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/09/one-true-skill.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-7457693966777392525Sun, 28 Aug 2011 17:44:00 +00002011-08-28T18:44:39.716+01:00ControversialFailPrivacyRantRealIDRealityStalkMeGoodbye Google+<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.psfk.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/No-Anonymity-For-Banksy-At-The-Oscars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.psfk.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/No-Anonymity-For-Banksy-At-The-Oscars.jpg" /></a></div><br />I've ranted <a href="http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/07/this-message-will-self-destruct-in-five.html">before</a> about the intrusive nature of the real names policy in Google+. There's an excellent example of what can go wrong in <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20096313-264/what-happens-when-google-cuts-you-off/">this</a> CNET article:<br /><br /><blockquote><i>"If you do not edit your name to comply with the names policy by <date>, your profile will be suspended: you will not be able to make full use of Google services that require an active profile, such as Google+, Buzz, Reader, and Picasa. This will not prevent you from using other Google services, like Gmail..."</date></i></blockquote>Fortunately, there's a way round this: remove the Google+ features from your account. You can find out how to do that <a href="http://www.google.com/support/+/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&amp;guide=1257355&amp;answer=1044503">here</a>. Even better, when you've done it, you get to explain your reasons for leaving, so you can make it clear that it's because of the lack of privacy.<br /><br />Goodbye Google+. I'd say it was nice knowing you, but it wasn't. At no point did I find anything remotely useful there. Although, to be fair, I don't see the point of Twitter or Facebook either, so maybe I'm not the target audience.<br /><br />It's good to be anonymous again.<br /><br /><br />http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/08/goodbye-google.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-7104639386087059634Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:53:00 +00002011-08-29T08:10:10.840+01:00CataclysmLoreSpeculationWarcraftDeath to the living<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.tvkon.com/images/gaming/08/09/WoW-WotLK_Wrathgate_cinematic_HD.avi/03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://www.tvkon.com/images/gaming/08/09/WoW-WotLK_Wrathgate_cinematic_HD.avi/03.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />In recent posts by <a href="http://cynwise.posterous.com/on-the-forsaken">Cynwise</a> and <a href="http://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2011/08/not-so-forsaken-anymore-how-sylvanas-co.html">Shintar</a>&nbsp;(and the comments associated with them), there's been an interesting debate about whether the Forsaken could be considered evil. I'm not inclined to buy the "an entire race is evil" theory, but it does raise the question of whether the leadership of the Forsaken (which is pretty much Sylvanas alone these days) are evil. At the core of this is the use of blight and the extent to which Sylvanas intends it to be employed.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><u>1. Did she know of &amp; approve of the development of the blight in general?</u><br />I don't think many people would dispute that.<br /><br /><u>2. Did she intend to use it against the Scourge?</u><br />Again, I'd say yes.<br /><br /><u>3. Did she intend it to be used at Wrathgate?</u><br />It's hard to be sure about this one. My suspicion is that Putress was given instructions to use it if he thought there was a good chance of taking out Arthas in one hit. Would anyone have complained about the loss of Bolvar and Saurfang Jr if Arthas had been defeated at Wrathgate?<br /><br />OK- perhaps Varian would have made a fuss for form's sake, but one suspects that in private he'd have been quite happy to sacrifice a potential rival in return for a quick win against the Scourge. Was Bolvar a potential rival? If he got home and saw what Varian was up to in Westfall, quite possibly.<br /><br /><u>4. Did Sylvanas intend it to be used as a weapon against the living at some point should it prove necessary?</u><br />Again, I'd say yes.<br /><br /><u>5. Is the eventual use of blight against the living her plan A, or merely a "don't mess with us" deterrent that would only be used as a last resort?</u><br />Pre-cataclysm, it would be possible to argue this one either way. However, the invasion of Gilneas clearly shows that Sylvanas intends to deploy blight liberally as a weapon of war.&nbsp;Whether this is fundamentally more evil than disembowelling people with spears or charring them to a cinder with fireballs is a question for another day.<br /><br /><u>6. Is Sylvanas <i>"scheming quietly about how to destroy all life on Azeroth and how to become the Ultimate Queen of Uber Evil"</i>.</u><br />The key part of this question may be the word "is", i.e. the use of the present tense. As Rades has pointed out in his <a href="http://www.orcisharmyknife.com/search/label/sylvanas">series of posts on Sylvanas</a>, it's entirely possible that she has changed as a result of her raising by the Valk'kyr; indeed the "Sylvanas" we see now may not even be the same person as the one we saw before. The Arthas part of the Lich King has been defeated, but it's less clear that the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wowwiki.com/Ner%27zhul">Ner'zhul</a>&nbsp;part has been.<br /><br />Perhaps the clue lies in the suspicious changes of appearance she's undergone over the years. Are these really the same person?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://images.wikia.com/wowwiki/images/7/75/Sylvanas_model_comparition.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://images.wikia.com/wowwiki/images/7/75/Sylvanas_model_comparition.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Who'd have thought that joining the ranks of the undead made your lips progressively poutier?</div><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_944402078"></span><span id="goog_944402079"></span>http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/08/death-to-living.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-3301327030731310449Fri, 05 Aug 2011 08:45:00 +00002011-08-29T08:09:32.474+01:00LoreSpeculationWarcraftHidden in plain sight<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080725203434/wowwiki/images/4/4d/Kvaldir_Raider.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080725203434/wowwiki/images/4/4d/Kvaldir_Raider.jpg" width="624" /></a></div><br />When getting over-excited about the <strike>certain-to-happen-omg-thank-you-Blizz</strike> highly speculative Mists of Pandaria expansion for WOW, I, along with some <a href="http://superiorrealities.wordpress.com/">more balanced commentators</a>&nbsp;got very focussed on the Pandaria bit of title.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />But maybe that's not the important bit. Pandaria may be the setting, but perhaps the theme of the expansion is actually being driven by the first word of the title: mists. There's an unfinished story from Cataclysm that has always felt as if it needed a sequel: that of the Kvaldir. We don't know much about them, other than that they attack the land from the mists, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/10/20/know-your-lore-look-to-the-seas-the-mists-of-the-kvaldir-pa/">can summon kraken</a>, and they are <a href="http://www.wowwiki.com/Quest:Visions_of_the_Past:_The_Invasion_of_Vashj%27ir">at war with the Naga</a> beneath the sea.<br /><br />That would tie the expansion neatly into the previous two and starts to shape the factions we might see, Proabably Naga and Vrykul as the main threats, with the Pandaren as the local friendly NPCs. Sadly, I think it's hard to see Blizzard assigning Pandaren to player characters to either of the current factions, as it would cause to much annoyance to the side that didn't get them. Lore-wise, they'd probably be slightly horde-inclined (as were the goblins), but it would be easy to update the story in the light of recent events to amend that. All it would take would be (for example) a Pandaren leader being rescued by an Alliance ship to shift that slight connection.<br /><br />Here's hoping...http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/08/hidden-in-plain-sight.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-2449073231003074381Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:41:00 +00002011-08-03T19:44:53.235+01:00SpeculationWarcraftEverybody was Kung Fu fighting...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://2.gvt0.com/vi/HeBHJLCZo_o/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/HeBHJLCZo_o&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HeBHJLCZo_o&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><br /></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2399-Mists-of-Pandaria">According to MMO Champion</a>, Blizzard have just registered "Mists of Pandaria" as a trademark. Please, please, please...</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><br /></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Embarrassing <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhUkGIsKvn0">Carl Douglas impersonation</a> in 5..4...3...</span>http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/08/everybody-was-kung-fu-fighting.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-2567913183703033212Sun, 31 Jul 2011 08:49:00 +00002011-07-31T09:55:33.063+01:00CultureVirtual WorldsNow, this is an idea for an addon!It seems that researchers have developed <a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2011/07/new-twitter-alogrithm-could-out-dudes-pretending-be-lesbians/40451/">software for identifying someone's gender</a> by their word usage on Twitter.<br /><br />Anyone fancy porting it to Lua? Oh, the fun we could have in Silvermoon...<br /><br />P.S.<br /><br />Free tip: Googling "Ladyboy Warcraft" will not produce blog-illustration-friendly images.http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/07/now-this-is-idea-for-addon.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-5842039891250772605Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:20:00 +00002011-08-29T08:10:35.243+01:00ControversialFailPrivacyRantRealIDRealityStalkMeThis message will self destruct in five seconds<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2009/364/d/a/Anonymous__No_Image_Available_by_SefMond.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2009/364/d/a/Anonymous__No_Image_Available_by_SefMond.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Here we go again. A year ago, Blizzard decided it would be a terrific wheeze to <a href="http://failpug.blogspot.com/search/label/StalkMe">force people to reveal their real names</a> when posting on the WOW forums, despite the obvious problems of harassment that could lead to.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />Now it seems to be Google's turn to have a fit of July madness. <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/27/ico_looks_at_google_plus_profiles_debacle/">According to The Register</a>, using your real name will be mandatory for anyone using Google+ and you'll have to prove your ID with a passport or other official document. My answer to that is the same as my answer to Blizzard and Facebook:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>No</b></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I do not choose to give you my personal information for you to hawk around the internet to any fruitcake who takes a random dislike to what I say. It is not there for prospective employers to Google and decide that they don't want the kind of weirdo that writes about video games. I will not hand over information&nbsp;&nbsp;to "prove" who I am&nbsp;that could be used for identity theft <strike>if</strike> when you get hacked, either.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My identity as a blogger and my identity in real life are completely separate and keeping that separation is more important to me than carrying on using Blogger. So if this blog stops updating or vanishes randomly at some point in the future, you'll know why. I won't co-operate with the gradual erosion of privacy on the internet and I suggest that you don't either.</div>http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/07/this-message-will-self-destruct-in-five.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-5064522491570556308Sat, 23 Jul 2011 16:35:00 +00002011-08-29T08:11:05.519+01:00CataclysmGame DesignIronmanRusty manSee your trainer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VqLoQ3nzyAU/TiruraoZueI/AAAAAAAAASY/GsPxMHkFCk4/s1600/See+your+trainer.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VqLoQ3nzyAU/TiruraoZueI/AAAAAAAAASY/GsPxMHkFCk4/s640/See+your+trainer.png" width="634" /></a></div><br />So, Erom has finally made it to the giddy heights of level 10 in my <a href="http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/07/one-button-wow.html">rusty man challenge</a>. So far, there hasn't been a fight that Arcane Shot + an angry pig can't handle. It hasn't seemed particularly slow, either.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />So why does it all feel so unsatisfying? Well, without the little rewards that come from new pieces of gear, abilities and talents, the game feels pointless. Considering how I've <a href="http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/04/cheat-button.html">mocked those who play for gear, not challenge,</a> this is deeply hypocritical.<br /><br />Without the new toys every half hour or so, the incredibly repetitive nature of the content itself becomes more obvious than a naked elf on a mailbox (and Cataclysm levelling is quite good by the standards of the genre). By adding new skills and talents every few levels, this gets disguised - the encounters seem different because we have more buttons to press, even though the mobs themselves are almost identical.<br /><br />I wonder if that's a clue to bringing some of the interest back to the solo game - make the encounters much more different. If anything, Cataclysm has taken a step in the other direction - for example, fire elementals are no longer immune to fire. Make the poison from scorpions hit like a truck, so that dispelling it is worth the bother; make melee mobs nasty enough for ranged types so that they have to kite, rather than simply spell them in the face. Anything to make different encounters need different tactics.http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/07/see-your-trainer.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-885519385903573638Fri, 22 Jul 2011 07:38:00 +00002011-07-22T09:01:34.903+01:00RantWarcraftAeeiiiih! It burns! It burns!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6131/5963031123_a1e81891a1_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6131/5963031123_a1e81891a1_b.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Blizzard have just posted <a href="http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2670954#blog">an excerpt</a> from the latest Warcraft novel, <i>"Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects"</i>.<br /><br />Seriously, is this thing intended to make buy the novel? The writing is unimaginably ponderous. Whatever happened to <i>"show, don't tell"</i>? Perhaps in Azeroth the commandment has been reversed. I can't think of a single blogger in my reading list (many of whom don't have English as a first language) who couldn't do a better job than this.<br /><br />Scarily, <a href="http://Christie Golden">Christie Golden</a> is apparently one of the better Warcraft writers. If what I've read in other reviews is correct,&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_A._Knaak">Richard A. Knaak</a> is even worse. I'm starting to see why some fantasy fans revere Tolkien so. I'd always thought of him as a rather mediocre plodder who couldn't write character. Compared to the lazy, unimaginative novel-a-month genre-fiction writers, though, he's like Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Ishiguro rolled into one! It's a sad state of affairs when game designers can <a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/741195-Garrosh-Thrall-Vol-jin-Sylvanas-Cliffwalker-Theron-Cairne-and-the-Horde.">write better dialogue</a> than a <i>"New York Times bestselling author"</i>.<br /><br />The sad thing is, I'd quite like to read a well-written novel set in the Warcraft universe.&nbsp;Twilight of the Aspects isn't it.<br /><br />Right, I'm off to read <a href="http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/17391384/The-Comeback-Girl/Product.html">"The Comeback Girl"</a>. It's got five stars on Play.com, &nbsp;so it must be good!http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/07/aeeiiiih-it-burns-it-burns.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-8016730585957177701Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:20:00 +00002011-07-23T17:36:28.028+01:00HunterIronmanRusty manWarcraftOne button WOW<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Bx7XrcU5zKU/TihOUiL_SiI/AAAAAAAAASU/kDYNYL9ex1o/s1600/Erom.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="420" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Bx7XrcU5zKU/TihOUiL_SiI/AAAAAAAAASU/kDYNYL9ex1o/s640/Erom.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />Want to know what's wrong with the <a href="http://landofodd.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/the-wow-ironman-challenge/">WOW Ironman challenge</a>? &nbsp;Not silly enough, I say. All this<i> "no talents, gear or glyphs"</i> nonsense is just EZ-mode. If you're a real <s>man</s> orc like Erom (pictured above with his trusty boar Varian), you like a bit of a challenge.<br /><br />Erom is on a mission. To get to max level with all the constraints of the ironman and one tiny extra one. No training - no abilities, no professions*. Erom doesn't need any of that sissy book learning - just Arcane Shot and an uncontrollable AI pet.<br /><br />Let's see how far he can get. In his pants...<br /><br /><b>Edit</b>: I've decided to call this the <i>"Rusty man challenge"</i>.<br /><br /><br /><br /><i>* Apart from riding that is. Even Erom isn't that stupid.</i>http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/07/one-button-wow.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-4062270770617584350Sun, 29 May 2011 18:39:00 +00002011-07-23T17:40:26.627+01:00CultureRiftScreenshotLooking good?One of the perennial problems of MMOs is female dress. It started off as a problem in computer games, because the original target market for them was nerdy teenage boys, for whom a glimpse of pixelated flesh was about as close as they were going to get to the real thing, so that was an effective sales tactic.<br /><br />Unfortunately, it hasn't gone away since MMOs became all growed-up and mainstream.<a href="http://moar-alts.blogspot.com/2011/02/21st-century-games-or-just-games-for.html">&nbsp;Clichéd&nbsp;chain-mail bikinis still abound</a>, even though the games are played by many women and, well, how can we put this ...<strike> men who have seen a real naked woman, so don't need to play the game one-handed people</strike>&nbsp;guys who don't get their kicks from pixels.<br /><br />Game companies rightly get a lot of grief for this, so a popular work-around has been the introduction of appearance slots in the game, to allow the players to choose their look, rather than have it dictated by the designers.&nbsp;Unfortunately, people are still people, so they don't always do what others might hope. Here's an example from Rift today (Rift allows you to have one set of gear for stats and another for appearance).<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br /><b><u>Epic gear with the good stats on it, looking as intended by the game designers:</u></b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-914HBkOwzfQ/TeKRwBSs7DI/AAAAAAAAAQE/h93f_01j1qk/s1600/appearance+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-914HBkOwzfQ/TeKRwBSs7DI/AAAAAAAAAQE/h93f_01j1qk/s640/appearance+3.png" width="450" /></a></div><br /><b><u>Appearance gear chosen by the player:</u></b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9-sdWQWT8Jg/TeKR0I1sRYI/AAAAAAAAAQI/7zs1IoI907E/s1600/appearance+4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9-sdWQWT8Jg/TeKR0I1sRYI/AAAAAAAAAQI/7zs1IoI907E/s640/appearance+4.png" width="378" /></a></div><br />Oh well...http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/05/looking-good.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-4196191550189151790Mon, 23 May 2011 17:20:00 +00002011-07-23T17:40:55.355+01:00ControversialGame DesignHumourRaidingRealityA modest proposal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bbcprograms.com/catalog/blackadder/images/0301_Blackadder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="448" src="http://www.bbcprograms.com/catalog/blackadder/images/0301_Blackadder.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />In that <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reality-Broken-Games-Better-Change/dp/0224089250">broken game</a> known as "real life" it is possible for low-skill players to obtain the same items as high-skill ones simply by grinding. For example, someone who flips burgers for ten thousand hours can save up for the same fancy car as a top engineer. Surely this can't be right! As many MMO players will tell you, it's&nbsp;&nbsp;it's skill that should be rewarded, not grind.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />To fix this, I&nbsp;propose the introduction of three classes of currency to be used to reward different tasks, just as we have green, blue and purple items in WOW.<br /><br /><ul><li>Turnips should be awarded for unskilled manual labour. They could be used to to purchase basics, such as bus tickets, pornography, burgers and gin.</li><li>Spanners should be awarded for skilled manual work. They could be used to purchase comfort items, such as basic cars, Royal Wedding Souvenirs and package holidays.</li><li>Crowns should be awarded for skilled intellectual work. They could be used to purchase luxury items, such as iphones, &nbsp;books, computers, <s>epic mounts for posing around town on</s>&nbsp;Ferraris, private education for your children (heirloom schooling), armani suits, servants, seats in parliament, etc.</li></ul><br />That way only the most skilled should have access to the most epic items in life and others are inspired to try harder by their example. Don't listen to their whining about plumbers and care workers being just as important as bankers. That's just socialist nonsense which encourages morons and slackers.http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/05/modest-proposal.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-6310796117033791163Sat, 21 May 2011 17:16:00 +00002011-05-24T06:36:50.293+01:00HumourRealityRapture, what rapture?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jingreed.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c73fe53ef0148c8411086970c-800wi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="352" src="http://jingreed.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c73fe53ef0148c8411086970c-800wi" width="640" /></a></div><div><br />Ooops!</div><div><br /><a name='more'></a>Oh, well that was rather a let-down.&nbsp;No earthquakes at 6pm here in the UK. No signs of salvation either.&nbsp;In fact the only thing that seems to have been affected is the Family Radio website, which has crashed mightily. The wrath of God?</div><div>I would mock, but this&nbsp;charlatan&nbsp;<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/21/apocalypse-not-now-rapture-fails-materialise">has extracted vast quantities of money from his poor gullible followers</a>. Perhaps they can get some of it back by eBaying their rapture T-shirts. I suspect they'll be collector's items for gloating&nbsp;atheists.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/easel/images/galleries/011435_Screen_shot_2011-05-20_at_1.14.21_PM_sized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/easel/images/galleries/011435_Screen_shot_2011-05-20_at_1.14.21_PM_sized.jpg" width="636" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/05/rapture-what-rapture.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-7177939617045934284Fri, 20 May 2011 19:13:00 +00002011-05-21T22:28:24.171+01:00Game DesignRaidingRiftWarcraftIf the cap doesn't fit...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.glowleaf.net/wp-content/gallery/post-pics/zerg-rush.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="512" src="http://www.glowleaf.net/wp-content/gallery/post-pics/zerg-rush.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />The cap on raid numbers is something of an established tradition in MMORPGs. The original reasoning was simple: if you don't have it, what's to stop a hundred idiots from simply rushing in and zerging everything?<br /><br />I've spent quite a while in Rifts recently, where that's more or less exactly what happens (at low levels anyway).<br /><blockquote><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Twenty DPS, one healer (me) and no tanks? No problemo! Just add more DPS and zerg that bad-boy down!</span></i></b></blockquote><br /><a name='more'></a>The thing is, it's all rather fun. Keeping a rampaging mob of half-wits alive is way more challenging than healing that I-have-a-horrible-feeling-you-could-solo-this-place-and-are-just-bringing-us-along-to-be-kind tank you've played with for years. Which made me wonder ... would it be so bad if raids were like this?<br /><br />On the plus side, it truly would allow anyone who wanted to to "see the content". What's more, it would remove the non-linearity in difficulty that plagues many games. WOW, for example, only has two difficulty levels for raids: normal and heroic. If you're slightly below the ability needed to pass that threshold (e.g. your guild is good enough to kill Arthas with 11 people, but not 10), you get nothing. By removing the raid cap, that problem automatically goes away.<br /><br />Of course it might be argued that this is unfair on players who are good enough to do the instances. Why should lesser mortals be allowed the purple shinies that were intended for the elite? Well, that's only relevant if you if you<a href="http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/04/cheat-button.html"> get your kicks from feeling superior to other people</a>&nbsp;rather than the challenge of the encounter. It's not like the game is going to run out of epics if all the peasants get them. Besides, the skilled players would still gear up faster, because the loot is split fewer ways. If it takes fifty of you to drop a raid boss, you aren't going to see much gear at the end of it. Essentially, the system is self-limiting. There's no point in a skilled guild zerging, because the raid-lockout remains, so you still get your weekly kill, but the rewards are spread thinner.<br /><br />Perhaps it's time to remove the cap.http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/05/if-cap-doesnt-fit.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-1062002358824404013Sat, 07 May 2011 08:10:00 +00002011-05-21T22:29:00.171+01:00Game DesignRaidingRantWarcraftRingers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.morethanthegames.co.uk/files/morethanthegames/spainbasketball.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://www.morethanthegames.co.uk/files/morethanthegames/spainbasketball.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />In most sports, bringing in someone else to play the game for you (a so-called <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ringer">ringer</a>) is regarded as cheating.&nbsp;If you got someone from <a href="http://www.wowprogress.com/guild/eu/lightning-s-blade/Paragon">Paragon</a> to play your character for you, so you always got top DPS and hence raid spots, boss kills, loot etc, would that be cheating? Most people would say yes. But we do that all the time with other aspects of the game, rather than the actual button pressing in a fight.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>Did you copy that spec or rotation from Elitist Jerks (EJ) or work it out yourself?&nbsp;What about the tactics you use? Does your guild require everyone to view the fight videos on Tank Spot before they raid or do you kill the bosses using your own ingenuity?<br /><br />In either case, if you got someone else to do the work, you cheated, just as surely as if you'd got someone from Paragon to play your character for you. The trouble is, if you spend the time to work it out yourself, <a href="http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2011/05/fear-of-sub-optimal.html">as Tobold advocates</a>, you get accused of letting the team down; being too stupid or lazy to look up the "right way". It's a topsy-turvy world, where the guy who solves a problem himself is regarded as a moron and slacker, while the guy who copies somebody else's work is regarded as intelligent and dedicated.<br /><br />Of course, it could be argued that the EJ copy &amp; paste method is how the game is <i>supposed</i> to be played, that the true challenge is in the execution. The trouble is, that turns MMOs into an elaborate and expensive game of Simon Says, which is boring in the extreme. Blizzard have been reduced to making WOW a twitch game, not because that's what they originally intended, but because it's the only kind of challenge you can't copy and paste your way past (<a href="http://www.kiasa.org/2011/05/05/introducing-kiasaplayer-for-kinect/">or can you?</a>). Raids are tuned on the assumption that people will cheat, making them almost impossible for people who try to solve the problem themselves.<br /><br />By cheating, copying the work of others, we the players have broken MMOs. You can't cheat and then complain about lack of challenge (essentially what was happening in Wrath). If you want challenge, stop bloody cheating! Work the encounters out yourself, rather than watching the how-to video on Tank Spot. Do your own experimentation and theorycraft to optimise your build, don't just copy and paste from EJ. Do your own homework, rather than copying someone else's.<br /><br />Otherwise you're just pressing that <a href="http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/04/cheat-button.html">cheat button</a>.http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/05/ringers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-2041133087779064981Wed, 27 Apr 2011 17:40:00 +00002011-05-07T09:19:42.500+01:00CultureRealityVirtual WorldsWarcraft good, Facebook bad<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/porn.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="185" src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/porn.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image courtesy of xkcd</td></tr></tbody></table>We all know the stereotype: the lonely angst-filled teen stuck in the basement playing video games, whilst the normal kids are out socialising or, as is the modern way, chatting to about 58 billion people simultaneously on MSN, Facebook and SMS.&nbsp;It's sites like Facebook that de-weirded the Internet: talking with your friends is something a normal healthy kid would do, instead of all those stupid orcs and spaceships. Prepare for some bad news, folks...<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />Well, not so much bad as ... interesting, which is what what good research should be. A team from from&nbsp;Queen's University, Kingston in Canada has been <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&amp;_udi=B6WPG-50HYG1N-4&amp;_user=10&amp;_coverDate=02%2F01%2F2011&amp;_rdoc=1&amp;_fmt=high&amp;_orig=browse&amp;_origin=browse&amp;_sort=d&amp;view=c&amp;_acct=C000050221&amp;_version=1&amp;_urlVersion=0&amp;_userid=10&amp;md5=48f3d93cb07242881647ec2358b191a8">looking at the connection between different kinds of screen time and risky behaviour in teenagers</a>&nbsp;(I'm afraid you have to pay or have some kind of academic access to get a full copy of the paper).&nbsp;Carson, Pickett and Janssen took a measure of risky behaviour (you can see full the details in the paper, but essentially it was a combined measure of smoking, drunkenness, non-use of seat-belts, &nbsp;illicit drug use and non-use of condoms) and compared it with three different kinds of screen use: watching TV, general computer usage and playing video games. As you'll see from the graph below, teenagers who spent a lot of time using their computer "normally" showed a much higher rate of risky activity than those with low computer usage. The amount of time playing video games had very little effect.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5GYrRmIH1Ag/TbhQrDXvE9I/AAAAAAAAAQA/T1RxCA01ojo/s1600/risk+vs+screen+time.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="318" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5GYrRmIH1Ag/TbhQrDXvE9I/AAAAAAAAAQA/T1RxCA01ojo/s640/risk+vs+screen+time.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My own graph, produced using the data in the paper. Any mistakes or misunderstandings are probably down to me!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In other words, if your kid spends all day playing WOW, it's fine. It's all that "normal" internet usage you want to worry about! The authors speculate that the increased impact of computer use compared to watching TV is that the latter is far more effectively regulated, so it's easier for teenagers to access "unsuitable" material. I'd suggest another contributing factor: social networks vastly increase the quantity of peer-pressure that kids are subject to, so the pressure to copy what all the cool/rebellious (depending on whether you're a teenager/parent) kids are doing also increases.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So delete little Johnny's Facebook account and buy him Call of Duty. Just think of the children!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Beyond irony update (28/04/11):</b>&nbsp;South Korea <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/04/25/south-korea-gaming-curfew-law-unanimously-passes-committee-move/">appears to be moving to limit children's game play time</a>. The article doesn't mention any such limits on TV or "normal" computer use. Evidence of harm? Who needs it?&nbsp;</div>http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/04/warcraft-good-facebook-bad.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-2424825610989213882Tue, 26 Apr 2011 13:21:00 +00002011-04-26T17:24:48.312+01:00ControversialGame DesignRaidingWarcraftThe cheat button<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-clzXN6MC3I0/TbbHrTOWSOI/AAAAAAAAAP8/8kcaajj5JOk/s1600/cheat+button2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-clzXN6MC3I0/TbbHrTOWSOI/AAAAAAAAAP8/8kcaajj5JOk/s1600/cheat+button2.png" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’d like you to join me in a simple thought experiment. Imagine a simple change to WOW: each player is given an additional ability, called, simply, Cheat. It’s not bound to any key by default, but it’s there if you want it. &nbsp;It does one thing – it instantly kills whatever (non-player) mob you are targeting.</span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finding a particular encounter too difficult or annoying ? Simply press Cheat and carry on with the rest of the game.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Getting tired and frustrated after banging your head against a particular boss for weeks? Don’t let your raid guild fall apart - just press Cheat and there’s automatically a raid wide vote on whether to kill the boss and move on. A single veto and you carry on as before.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">People have been using cheat codes in single player games for ages, to avoid content they dislike. What’s the difference?&nbsp;MMOs aren’t a zero-sum game. By getting the shiny epixx from Mr Bigboss, you aren’t preventing anyone else from getting them.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As a result, this change wouldn’t affect people who enjoy raiding for the challenge it poses: they can get their fun as before, with the personal satisfaction of knowing they did it the hard way.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The only people who might be bothered are those whose real reason for raiding is to collect status symbols to show off to other players. If everybody gets the Mighty Halberd of Foozlecide (with New, Improved, Shadowfire Animation!), how is anyone to know how </span><s><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">insecure and attention-seeking</span></s><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> l33t the status-raiders are?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But you aren't one of them, are you?</span></span></div>http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/04/cheat-button.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-8264879387159990733Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:27:00 +00002011-04-18T21:33:32.160+01:00Game DesignPVEPVPForking Games<div class=""><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/BlauweVork.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img class="alignleft" height="200" id="blogsy-1303158405798.7944" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/BlauweVork.png" width="87" /></a></div>One of the perennial problems game designers face is the tension between the requirements of fun PVE and PVP games. PVE thrives on variety (it's rather boring if the only difference between mages and warlocks is the colour of the light that comes from their fingers), whereas PVP thrives on homogeneity (or at least there's less whinging on the forums about how it's not fair that warlocks have fear but mages don't).<br /><br />As a result, designers find themselves subject to a never-ending series of complaints. Improve things for PVP and the PVEers complain and vice versa. <br /><br />Of course there is a simple solution to this: take the Darkfall route and simply design your game around one audience and let the others go hang. The trouble with this is that it isn't necessarily compatible with the mass market, as many people enjoy both aspects of the game.<br /><br />So, what's to be done? Well, one solution is to simply have two versions of the game, each optimised for a different audience. For many games, this is unworkable, as the player base is too small to support it. For WOW, however, it's a different story. Fork it into eWOW and pWOW and Blizzard would have the top two MMOs, potentially with a more loyal player base, as it would be easier to make changes to meet the needs of the two communities. The eWOW rules would apply on what are currently PVE servers and the pWOW ones on PVP servers.http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/04/forking-games.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-7748857805072152468Sun, 17 Apr 2011 20:50:00 +00002011-04-17T21:57:03.535+01:00HumourWarlockIncubusThere seems to have been a massive reaction to the news the Blizzard are working on multi-sex versions of warlock demons, with a particular focus on <a href="http://spellbound.nu/?p=1052">half-naked images of Vin Diesel </a>for the incubus.<br /><br />I'm not so sure. Let's look at the current succubus: winged, half naked, skimpy leather outfit, sexy and deadly. There can be only one male equivalent:<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://maxcdn.fooyoh.com/files/attach/images/1068/697/875/002/brian_blessed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://maxcdn.fooyoh.com/files/attach/images/1068/697/875/002/brian_blessed.jpg" width="258" /></a></div><a href="http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060714163816/wowwiki/images/2/29/Succubus_New.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060714163816/wowwiki/images/2/29/Succubus_New.png" width="224" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">=</span></b><br /><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b><br /><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b><br /><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b><br /><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b><br /><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b><br /><div style="text-align: left;">He's so shameless, he'd probably do the voice for it as well!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></div></div>http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/04/incubus.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-612300767388584088Sat, 09 Apr 2011 22:00:00 +00002011-04-14T13:38:55.318+01:00BloggingiPadBlogsyI'm currently experimenting with the new&nbsp;<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blogsy/id428485324?mt=8">Blogsy </a>blogging app for the iPad. The iPad is crying out for a decent piece of blogging software and the app I've been using until now (<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blogpress/id317799861?mt=8">Blogpress</a>) can be pretty clunky. In theory, Blogsy is much more capable (it's had <a href="http://justanotheripadblog.com/ipad-apps/blogsy-blogging-app-for-ipad-hits-the-app-store">good reviews</a>), but right now I'm finding it rather counter-intuitive. I can't work out how to save things and the first draft of this post just vanished into the aether when I lent the machine to someone else.<br /><br />Links also seem to be beyond me. I know it does them, but how? Maybe I'll get the hang of it in time, but I've had to switch to the regular web-browser based Blogger to finish posting about a new blogging app. &nbsp;Not a good sign...<br /><br /><b>Update: </b>As you'll see from the first comment below, one of the Blogsy developers has taken the trouble to comment and offer support. That's excellent customer service and suggests a bright future.<br /><br /><b>Update 2(14/04/11)</b>: Blogsy ate another of my posts today, one I'd been working on for days. I honestly can't recommend it in its current state. I do appreciate that the developers are working hard to improve it, but it simply isn't working properly right now.http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/04/blogsy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-549679954434737405Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:00:00 +00002011-04-07T08:00:07.455+01:00Game DesignRaidingThe rise of theorycraftSometimes you have a good idea for a blopost and someone else not only beats you to it, but does it better as well.<br /><br />Eddie Carrington (AKA Brigwyn) has an excellent post on the harm excessive theorycrafting can do to a game <a href="http://www.riftriders.net/2011/03/theorycrafting-a-double-edged-sword/">here</a>. It's worth a read.http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/04/rise-of-theorycraft.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-5135543503234089568Wed, 06 Apr 2011 19:42:00 +00002011-04-11T15:21:58.312+01:00Game DesignVirtual WorldsThe long tail<center><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/104805938696012254066/FailPUG?authkey=Gv1sRgCN_D0MT1-8aeeQ#5592553107585074130"><img border="0" height="146" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_LidJASBoW-c/TZy9a7Udg9I/AAAAAAAAAP0/V3Vot8OJrIk/s288/0.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="281" /></a></center><br />One of the more fashionable business concepts of the early 21st Century has been the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Tail" target="_blank">long tail</a>. This has taken off because organisations like Amazon are able to hold a much larger quantity of stock than conventional retailers, so are able to cater for a wide variety of minority tastes that a high-street shop could never hope to match. They can do this because their business model locates the product storage in cheap out-of-town depots, so the cost per item is much lower. In principle, all-digital stores (such as iTunes) should be able to cater for an even wider range of tastes, as the cost of storage and delivery for purely digital goods is even lower.<br /><br />MMO makers are in a similar position. The cost of creating and storing new content is very low, so games like WOW can afford to include features that appeal to minority tastes, such as role-players or hardcore raiders. If someone sits on a virtual chair or kills an Internet dragon, they don't wear out or need to be re-made. The only thing that limits their re-use is the boredom of the players; a thousand people can sit on that chair simultaneously, but the same player won't want to sit on it a thousand times.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>One of the things that makes life difficult for new entrants to such a market is the ability of large incumbents to spread the (already low) cost of new features over a wide player base. One of the interesting things about Rift is how the developers appear to have addressed this. They can't match WOW for player numbers to spread costs over, but there is another way. By developing tools that allow them to create content more efficiently than Blizzard can (as demonstrated by the rapid release of new content in patch 1.1), they can compensate for lower initial subscriber numbers and hence add in enough to attract a wider audience over time. It's a tactic that Blizzard will find hard to counter: re-working the ageing WOW engine to allow for rapid content creation is a significant undertaking, particularly when the top developers are away working on the mysterious Titan project.<br /><br />Titan may well be the plan, of course. Whilst it would be hard to port WOW to a new, more efficient engine, it's far from impossible. Whether it's cost-effective is another matter. Given that player boredom kills everything eventually, it may well be simpler to let WOW gradually fade and move on. After all, it would still be profitable if it lost 90% of its subscribers. That's a real long tail.http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/04/long-tail.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4041140959859966193.post-8750278754282082755Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:57:00 +00002011-04-09T23:02:18.487+01:00Game DesignRaidingRiftVirtual WorldsIt's the taking part that counts<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Doorman.JPG?uselang=en-gb" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="564" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Doorman.JPG?uselang=en-gb" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">Photo: Hans-Petter Fjeld (<a class="external text" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/" rel="nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(data:image/png; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #3366bb; padding-right: 13px; text-decoration: none;">CC-BY-SA</a>)</span></td></tr></tbody></table>I've been playing quite a bit of Rift recently. For all the accusations of it being a WOW clone (not a fundamentally bad thing, by the way), it does differ in one important respect: the approach to grouping.<br /><br />Most group content in WOW is tightly regulated: five-mans are tuned for ... errr ... five people; raids are designed for ten or twenty-five. If you've got 11 people available for raiding tonight, someone has to miss out. You can't just wander up to an instance and help out, either - if your name's not on the list, you're not coming in.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />That's a deliberate decision on Blizzard's part: raiding is intended to be hard, so that the most skilful players get the best rewards. The down side of this approach is that it's a very non-linear reward system. If your guild is skilled / geared enough to drop the boss with 25 people, congratulations - you win shiny purplez! If you're only good enough to do it with 26, tough luck - you get nothing.<br /><br />That's led to a high-pressure environment; you have to justify your place in that 25. That brings further non-linearity: if you're the 26th best player, you get nothing whilst the 25th best is showered in riches. It's also a pain for guild officers, as someone has to make the decision as to who makes the cut for the raid, which isn't always clear. How do you fairly judge soft skills such as teamwork and situational awareness or balance current performance vs potential? There's probably only a marginal difference between number 25 and number 26, so whoever misses out may well feel miffed.<br /><br />What all this means is that what may start of as a tiny difference in player ability can end up with a huge difference in reward, as the slightly better player gets better gear, which increases the gap further with every raid.<br /><br />Of course, its very easy to say what's wrong with the way MMOs work; it's much harder to come up with workable alternatives. That's what makes the WAR idea of public quests, as refined by Trion into the rift system, so interesting. This takes completely the opposite approach. Anyone can join in a rift and help out - in fact, it's actively encouraged through the public group system. Because there's no limit on the number of players that can join in (other than frame rate and lag, anyway!), there is no real reason to exclude someone - even lousy DPS is better than none. There is no issue with "seeing the content" in Rift, as even ultra casuals can drop in on a rift if they happen to be in area.<br /><br />Under this system, the problem changes from "who gets to participate?" to "who gets what reward?". And that's where things start to get sticky: how exactly do you measure contributions so that skill and effort is fairly rewarded?<br /><br />It's this issue that tripped up Mythic early on, with some people <a href="http://www.mmocrunch.com/2010/07/23/warhammer-online-public-quests-a-good-idea-gone-bad/" target="_blank">concerned that the rewards seemed random</a>. What makes measuring contribution hard is the question of what gets measured. Some things seem easy enough, like damage or healing done, but how do you measure debuffing or tanking? Trion talk nebulously about measuring "activity", but it's hard to see what this means other than <a href="http://www.arksark.org/blog/5113/on-rift-s-contribution-system/" target="_blank">buttons pressed</a>: it doesn't measure actual usefulness.<br /><br />This leads to what economists call <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive" target="_blank">perverse incentives</a>. People get rewarded more for silly things like standing there spamming insta-cast buffs on themselves than actually contributing to the fight. This problem doesn't happen in WOW because the people rating your performance are well, people, rather than an algorithm which can be gamed.<br /><br />Long term, this may be the greatest threat to Rift - it's hard to imagine any contribution rating algorithm defeating the theorycrafters for more than a few weeks. It's a noble effort, though, and I hope I'm proved wrong.http://failpug.blogspot.com/2011/03/it-taking-part-that-counts.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sven)0